FIND AN ACCOMPANIST PROFESSIONAL

It’s also about the team for Itzhak Perlman, who has this advice on finding a compatible partner: ‘Look for somebody who is pleasant to work with. Pamela Viktoria Pyle, professor of collaborative piano in New Mexico For me, it’s crucial that the whole process is collaborative and benefits everyone involved. ‘I want them to learn to listen from the standpoint of a string player. ‘I also expect the same thing to be happening to my students when they go to their partners’ lessons,’ she says. She requires her collaborative piano students to bring their partners to all their lessons. We’ve got to get the younger generation to understand how important it is.’Īnne Epperson has been particularly instrumental in creating opportunities for music students to study alongside collaborative piano peers. ‘I wish Sanders were alive to see that it’s recognised,’ he says. But as Itzhak Perlman's long-time collaborative pianist Rohan De Silva is quick to point out, there is still a long way to go. Thanks to Moore, Sanders, and other rallying musicians, the field of collaborative piano has grown in the last few decades. I said: “No, no, no, no, no! Either pianist or collaborative artist.” You’ve got to make them learn’ – ROHAN DE SILVA ‘Once, they billed me as Mr Perlman’s accompanist. ‘When famous solo pianists – Emanuel Ax, Daniel Barenboim, Joseph Kalichstein – began publicly, visibly and enthusiastically collaborating and presenting themselves as partners, it really helped to elevate the awareness that this is not a lesser art,’ says Anne Epperson, who served as Jascha Heifetz’s staff pianist at the University of Southern California, and is currently professor of collaborative piano at the University of Texas. This, in turn, engendered even more respect for the field.

FIND AN ACCOMPANIST PROFESSIONAL

In addition to aiding the performance community to see collaborative piano as a viable professional option, Moore and Sanders also paved the way for leading solo pianists to consider collaborating. Since then, close to a hundred collaborative piano degree programmes have been established in conservatoires throughout the world. Following the establishment of the first collaborative piano degree programme at the University of Southern California in 1947, he pushed to establish a masters degree in collaborative piano at the Juilliard School when he joined its faculty in 1963. Sanders didn’t stop at changing the accepted terminology. One of his lasting contributions to the field was coining the term ‘collaborative pianist’. Gerald Moore with baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskauįollowing Moore’s initial efforts, pianist Samuel Sanders, who collaborated with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Mstislav Rostropovich, continued the fight for more equal footing. He was such a fabulous pianist that they complied. Gerald Moore came along and insisted that he wouldn’t record anything unless he had his name on the label.

‘Pianists were hired into studios to make recordings with artists, and they didn’t even put the name of the pianist on the label. ‘Think way back to the early 1900s,’ says professor of collaborative piano at the Cleveland Institute Virginia Weckstrom. In the opening chapter, Moore admits that he used to think ‘the accompanist was a sort of caddie who carried the violinist’s fiddle… but after some years of work and experience I began to realise how important and interesting the musical life of an accompanist could and should be.’ Moore’s book The Unashamed Accompanist was published in 1943. The result has brought about a new title – collaborative pianist – and a paradigm shift in the classical music world, which views pianists as equal partners rather than as subordinates.Īn early champion for piano accompanists’ rights was English pianist Gerald Moore, who collaborated with such instrumentalists as Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin. The word “accompanist” is a total mistake.’Īttitudes have begun to change in recent years, thanks to the pianists and other instrumentalists who have rallied together to eliminate the hierarchy implied by the term that has, well, accompanied pianists for so long. ‘A lot of the repertoire, like Beethoven and Mozart sonatas, is written for piano and violin.

‘It’s true: there’s no such thing as an accompanist,’ says Perlman. But some of the world’s leading classical musicians, including Itzhak Perlman (pictured), take offence at this misconception. Not good enough for solo careers, they are hired to perform a service: to obey their musical partner’s instructions without question. There has long been a stereotype in the performance community that accompanists are inferior musicians. This article was first published in the March 2010 issue of The Strad so some of the interviewees may no longer hold the positions described here

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